Shepard's Rule
by Alex Ryzlin Gold
Summary: Aria isn't the only one who has a rule, and she's about to learn what Shepard's one rule is. No one messes with Shepard's crew.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **Shepard's Rule

**Author: **Alex Ryzlin Gold

**Fandom: **Mass Effect

**Pairing/s: **Mention Fem!Shep/Liara

**Rating: **Teen

**Warnings: **Swearing, and lots of it.

**Spoilers: **Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 (including the omega DLC)

**Disclaimer: **I do not own.

Shepard knew that Aria T'Loak would eventually cause her problems the moment she walked into Afterlife with her crew. Though crew was a bit of a hyperbole as Shepard hadn't managed to recruit a lot of people to her cause yet.

She'd only met Zaeed five minutes prior, so 'crew' was being used liberally when applied to him. Anyway, he was off somewhere else, finishing business before he boarded the Normandy. Miranda had stayed on board the Normandy to finish off some work despite Jane's request that she take a bit of time off. Jacob had wanted a drink and some relaxation, but for the moment his need for a drink was overridden by his need to protect Jane. He hadn't been too pleased with the idea of Jane going dockside in Omega for the first time with only Jack as company. Jack had wanted a real drink in a real club surrounded by real music and real people. Despite the fact that she had been in stasis for the past few years and completely oblivious to her own existence, she still complained about the fact that she hadn't been able to drink anything that whole time and jumped at the idea of going ground side in Omega.

People watched them as they moved through the lower level of Afterlife; they stood out horribly. Their armour was a bit _too_ nice to be mercenary, and their weapons were a bit _too_ well worn to be just for show.

Shepard wasn't surprised by Aria's apparent lack of interest in her. It was clearly an act to prove that Aria was the one with the power. She had been helpful, a little too helpful to not be interested and Shepard knew she'd most likely expect some sort of compensation when everything was over and the galaxy wasn't in dire threat of being destroyed. When someone well known to uphold high morals and a fierce duty to save people came to the roughest place in the Milky Way, you paid attention. Particularly when you ran Omega.

What Shepard hadn't expected was Aria's blatant staring at Jack. Admittedly Aria was actually kind of subtle about it, but to Jane it was pretty obvious. The staring could be explained, Jack dressed pretty unusually for a human and her tattoos were exquisitely done. But Aria a little parting shot that showed that she knew exactly who Jack was.

"Make sure you control that pet experiment of yours."

Only Jane heard it and it only took her a second to decide that Jack was never coming to Omega again. Aria's interest would only lead to trouble for Jack.

/-/-/-/-/

"Shepard!"

Jane sighed as Jack called out to her. She wasn't surprised; she _had_ just banned Jack from disembarking the Normandy. They hadn't gone back to Omega since the first time when Mordin and Garrus had been recruited, and Shepard had hoped that they wouldn't have to. But now they were hunting down Samara's daughter and there was no other option. The rest of her crew was huddled at the door of the briefing room, having been in the middle of leaving when Jack yelled at her. They were acting like they were trying not to listen in, but were doing a poor job of it. Some of them had given her weird looks when she requested that Jack not enter Omega, but mostly they had accepted that she had a good reason. Jack hadn't.

"Jack."

"Why the fuck are you grounding me like some under aged brat? I mean, did I do something wrong? You can't just tell me that I can't -"

Jane pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm not trying to punish you Jack. I need you to trust me with this; I think I've earned that."

"Shepard…" Jack sighed. "Fuck it. Fine, I'll stay onboard. Just don't make a habit of it."

Jane glared at Miranda when she opened her mouth to say something. Sometimes Jack and Miranda's rivalry was funny, most of the time it was annoying as hell. Jack pushed through everyone and presumably headed to her room under engineering. Everyone but Samara left shortly after.

"Are you ready, Shepard? Morinth will be tricky to corner and you seem distracted by whatever is happening with Jack."

Jane sat down heavily in one of the many chairs in the briefing room and sighed heavily. Samara scared her sometimes; she was incredibly powerful and completely unemotional when it came to the Justicar code. There was no give or take, just the code and the inflexibility worried Shepard a bit. But Samara was an asari Matriarch and Jane had found that she gave excellent advice.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

Shepard rubbed her eyes. "The first time we went to Omega, Aria called Jack a 'pet experiment'. She knows who Jack is, and that means that she's looked into Jack's history before this whole thing with Cerberus began. It's not too surprising, the prison they held her in was run by the Blue Suns, and if they wanted to get into Aria's good books, they might tell her about Jack. A powerful human biotic who would probably join whoever freed her, who wouldn't want that?"

"Jack is with you now, do you really think she will leave to join Aria?" Samara asked calmly. Shepard knew that Jack and Samara hadn't really talked and that part of that was so that Samara didn't have to go against her Justicar code when Jack did something less than legal.

"At one point I thought there was the possibility that she would leave the Normandy the first chance she got, but not anymore. Now I worry that Aria will see Jack and become interested in her, and that Jack won't have a choice in the matter. I need Aria to forget that Jack exists, and that it's going to happen if Jack spends her time getting drunk in Afterlife."

Samara tilted her head to the side. "Why don't you tell Jack this?"

"Because Jack is a stubborn son of a bitch who will disregard my concerns and flaunt the fact that she exists to Aria to prove I'm over reacting." Shepard grinned awkwardly. "It's probably what I'd do actually. Samara, can I ask for your help with this?"

"What do you need Shepard?"

"If Morinth is on Omega, Aria will know. I want you to come with me to see her. I want Aria to know that whenever the Normandy docks at Omega she has to be careful because I have a Justicar on my ship and that going after Jack is a bad idea."

"Of course Shepard. A peaceful solution is always something to aim for."

/-/-/-/-/

Aria made a few sarcastic remarks about Samara accompanying Shepard but gave them the information they needed to find Monrith.

"Next time bring the other biotic, she's a lot more to my tastes." Aria sneered.

Jane stopped at the top of the stairs down into the lower level of Afterlife. She nodded at Samara, indicating that she should downstairs.

"I'll be down shortly."

Shepard turned to Aria. "You have your rule, Aria and I respect that. This is your station and I will follow your rule, as long as you understand and follow mine."

Aria laughed. "What? 'Don't fuck with Shepard'?"

"No." Shepard clenched her fist, making blue sparks of biotic powers flicker across her hands. "Don't fuck with Shepard's crew. I've died Aria; it's not as scary as you might think. The asari I love is so distant with me that I don't even know what to do about it anymore. Aside from making sure that the Collectors and the Reapers are stopped somehow I really don't have much to look forward to. The only things I have to lose are my mission and my crew. So I'm warning you, don't fuck with my crew Aria. Don't fuck with Miranda or Jacob. Don't fuck with Garrus, Tali, or Grunt. Don't fuck with Mordin, or Thane, or Zaeed. Don't fuck with Samara, Kasumi, or anyone else that decides to help me. But most of all, don't fuck with Jack. Leave her alone."


	2. Chapter 2

**Spoilers: **Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 (including the omega DLC)

**Disclaimer: **I do not own.

**Author's Note: **This was meant to be a one-shot that turned into a two-shot because it was quite open ended. Now it is finished. :)

Seeing Shepard with Subject Zero had burned a bit. Aria had planned to liberate the human biotic eventually for her own purposes. She'd have killed her within a year, of course. You couldn't control someone like Subject Zero for long and at a certain point she would have become a liability. Still, she would have had some use, if Shepard hadn't stolen her away.

The Blue Suns had promised Subject Zero to her, and if Shepard hadn't killed all the mercenaries stationed on the prison then Aria would have gone out of her way to do so. Damn mercenaries always cared more about money than promises. Aria still punished the Blue Suns for it though. They had been hit the hardest after Shepard had given her that data pad with the plans to take over Omega and she had let them know that part of that was their failure to keep a promise to her.

There had been a plan in the making the first time that Shepard had docked at Omega with Subject Zero; a plan to get the human weapon back and into Aria's hands. That had been quickly stopped the second time that the Normandy came to Omega. Aria's spies had told her that Subject Zero hadn't left the ship for some reason (and none of Shepard's crew were talking so all of Aria's intel was only speculation). Shepard had threatened her, and Aria had wanted nothing more than to punch or shoot Shepard right in her self-righteous face. But that would be stupid because despite the fact that Shepard screwed up some of her plans every now and again she was a powerful ally and the universe needed to be saved by someone.

That was why six months later, after Cerberus had claimed Omega and Aria was stuck in the stupidly named and designed Purgatory (why would you share the name of your club with a prison that housed the most dangerous criminals in the galaxy?) Aria offered Shepard her help. If one person could defeat the Reapers it was going to be the human too stupid and too stubborn to ever give up or be scared. Shepard certainly fitted the bill.

/-/-/-/-/

Aria had been surprised to see Subject Zero at a table in Purgatory, not to mention the almost conservative (for Subject Zero anyway) clothing she had been wearing. She had tried to find Subject Zero after the Normandy came back from the Omega-4 Relay only to find that she was in some secure Alliance facility in Council space and that was one can of worms that Aria didn't want to open. Aria hadn't been surprised when Shepard dropped into the chair opposite Subject Zero. They had talked for a long time, and drunk quite a few glasses. Nothing strong enough to knock them unconscious (Aria had spent time watching Shepard when she came to Purgatory, it was always good to know what the people around you could take) but enough to get Shepard to agree to dancing. Now that was a travesty. For someone so perfectly graceful with a weapon, Shepard couldn't dance at all.

They left then, walking next to each other down the stairs where Shepard waved at a large man at the bar (Aria knew him to be one of Shepard's men, but he was quite unimportant to her) before inclining her head at Aria as they passed. Subject Zero was oblivious to it. Maybe Aria had gotten the better deal with Shepard after all. Subject Zero could have been an asset, though admittedly a temporary one. But Shepard would be useful for a long time assuming she lived through the war.

Aria nodded back.

Shepard left the bar with Subject Zero only to come back a few minutes later after having apparently only escorted Subject Zero to the elevator.

"So," Shepard said as she sat down on the couch Aria had claimed. "I see you've settled in well."

"This place is still a cesspool." Aria snarled.

"Well, it's a good thing that I own you a favour then isn't it."

/-/-/-/-/

Taking back Omega had a few complications, but more than anything it proved to Aria that she had made the right choice in leaving Subject Zero alone. Aria had always known that Shepard was a rather impressive human when it came to combat and biotics, but seeing her in action in person was quite illuminating. And kind of scary.

Shepard and Aria sat in the half destroyed remains of Afterlife at the bar. They had liberated a few bottles of alcohol from behind the bar and were sitting in one of the booths. Aria's area up the top was utterly destroyed.

"Think we're even now Aria." Shepard said with a smirk. "And neither of us is dead. I'm almost surprised by that."

Aria snorted. "We're both too good at this to die."

"You mean we're both too stubborn to die."

"Sure, whatever lets you sleep at night."

They were silent for a long while they drunk in each other's company.

"I see you got your asari back." Said Aria calmly. It was a risky act, letting Shepard know that her private affairs weren't so private.

"Yeah, it's been a long time coming." Shepard took a sip of her drink. "I'd have killed you, you know. If you had gone after my crew."

"Why don't you say what you really mean, Shepard."

Shepard sipped her drink again and grinned slightly. "Fine. Had you gone after Jack. I'd have killed you if you'd have gone after Jack. Though that threat did extend to the rest of my crew, I just knew you were interested in Jack."

"I know." Aria said slowly.

"Good."

"I'm not sure you would have won though."

"Neither am I, but I'm sure you'd be dead one way or another. I'm not the only one who is good enough to fight you. Anyway, I've got a universe to save."

"You better, Shepard. I'm not ready to die yet."


End file.
